nolaguy
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
Good morning Patrick,
I spent a few minutes rearranging the light and color just to offer a few thoughts. Please folks, eyes and minds on the concept, not my hack LR edits - though they did result in a rather sooty look on the face which fits the idea I suppose 
Introduction and disclaimer aside, it's a nice shot Patrick, but for me not entirely concept-centric given your description.
What I see is an off-camera-lit shot of a guy poking at a fire. I see a lot of negative space that I would generally like but largely because of the background chair I wasn't sure if the negative space added or detracted. I see color temperature conflicts that diffuse the "fire" feel - i.e. the strongest color input is from the flash and thus cool, not warm.
What I wanted to see was the fire more prominent and in this case, to me, that meant a warmer image and the glow from the fire being the primary light source. Obviously I couldn't completely change the direction of the flash fill but I tried to illustrate the idea of the fire's glow being the obvious key light.
Side note that in reality, that may have resulted in a "ghoul face" if he was only lit from below so some measure of OCF fill may have been necessary - albeit dialed down and probably gelled warmer to match the fire color temp.
One cooler temperature lighting element in the original image that I think does work beautifully is the rim lighting on his back and the back of his head. To me it feels like moonlit edges and depth. Very credible and fitting.
The chair in the front-left doesn't bother me at all. For me, the chair in the background is just visual distraction. No biggie but I don't think it helps the image.
I did try a tighter crop which may (in concert with a lot of color and glow modification) put more emphasis on your brother and on the fire, but were the other chair not there, I may have left it alone.
Cheers,
Chuck
|
